Shohei Ohtani has signed and to quote Ralphie Parker, “All is right with the world…” Now that the plug created by MLB’s version of “The Decision” has been taken out, we should be seeing more and more players come off the board. Specifically, we should be seeing what some might call “star” players come off the board (what’s the record for most quotation marks to be used to begin an article?) Once they are gone, the spotlight around the remainder of free agency will shift into two questions:
Who’s left?
Who has more money to spend?
What remains can be broadly divvied into three realms: stars, everyone else and the one year guys. The stars will command salaries that are in the high teens/low twenties in terms of AAV. Everyone else will be trying to snag whatever the best combination of highest guaranteed money and largest amount of playing time presents itself. The one year guys will be hoping for either a nice pillow contract that will allow them to try again next year or the best opportunity to find playing time that exists. This third group of players, particularly in the outfield, this is likely the part of the free agent pool the Phillies will likely be splashing around in. Having spent their big money on Aaron Nola and possessing a roster that doesn’t provide many places to plug a player in at, the team will begin looking at those that are more willing to take a one-year deal. That way, the team can evaluate what they have in Johan Rojas after a longer season of Triple-A exposure and no one is there to block him if he does take some kind of leap while simultaneously providing help to a team that is World Series mode right now.
However, one has to wonder: what is there even left to think on for the Phillies?
Options they won’t be adding
This is the part where we can confidently say the team won’t be adding any of the bigger names still looking for work as outfielders. Cody Bellinger would make a nice addition to the team, but he’s now arguably the best bat available with Ohtani under an agreement. He’ll get the big buck and that right soon. Jorge Soler would provide that right-handed power bat the team missed so desperately in Rhys Hoskins, but his outfield defense can best be described as “iffy.”
Basically, anyone that is still looking at signing a multi-year deal and will command regular playing time will be players the Phillies aren’t sniffing around. They’re already rather set at two positions in the outfield and we’re not exactly sure what they plan on doing with Rojas. They’re still desiring to stay under the luxury tax threshold, so leaping past it isn’t on the docket right now.
The ones that got away
Remember all those people that were trying to throw whatever they could at the Padres to acquire Juan Soto? How disappointed are they in the return that San Diego got for their star?
The players that went back to San Diego from the Yankees could probably have been beaten as a package from Philadelphia, but it would drain their farm system in a way that it doesn’t for the Yankees. Thanks to their ability to churn out players that project as big league arms, New York was able to trade four pitchers for Soto, three pitchers for Alex Verdugo and lose three pitchers in the Rule 5 draft. That’s depth that the Phillies just don’t have. Now, we’ll be left with “what if?” all over the place in terms of what could the Phillies actually have traded.
Speaking of “what if?”, why weren’t they in on Tyler O’Neill?
The melee
So now, we boil it down to what we’ve heard through the rumor mill this season and see if we can come up with something. We’ve heard about their desire to add someone to the bench who can play center field and is preferably right-handed. Ok, if we wanted to add to our list “players that can start”, we can come up with four names that fit the bill and one semi-interesting name.
Adam Duvall – To me, this is the team’s primary target right now. Duvall authored a season in 2023 in which he hit 21 home runs in only 353 plate appearances, played center field at the very least an average level and has shown he can handle a full season as a starter.
